I can put the reminders based on the assumption the programme runs on a set frequency until a set date, which I can ask the user to input.

But if you want me to set the reminders based on the real data, then I can only do it for max 7 days in advance, and also this will require i download the data for that channel for 7 days, i really didnt want to do it just so that we save bandwidth and so that it wont abuse the site that is providing data, imagine if all users have 10 favourite programmes on different channels then every week 10*7 = 70 files get downloaded every week per user. The first method seems doable , and its easy to implement as well.